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The Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission has documented a number of instances of housing discrimination against people because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, class or ability. Rosemary Winters of the Salt Lake Tribune highlighted a few disturbing instances – a landlord who refused to fix a family’s oven because the tenants didn’t speak English, and a man who faced eviction because he was gay. Among other recommendations, the report suggested Mayor Ralph Becker and the City Council pass a nondiscrimination ordinance. Becker has said he planned to introduce such an ordinance this year.

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The prospect of using underground heat to generate electricity in Montana isn’t sending anyone running for federal leases – at least yet. It turns out Montana’s geothermal energy potential isn’t as hot as prospectors hoped, according to a story by Rob Chaney in the Billings Gazette. Potential geothermal sites could generate enough energy to warm swimming pools and greenhouses, but not for heavy-duty energy production. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have been braced for leasing requests, but so far no one has asked. The one hot spot that could generate such power is near Yellowstone National Park, where geothermal energy production is forbidden.

In contrast, there is considerable geothermal exploration going on in Nevada and California. A plant at Geyserville in northern California already produces about 6 percent the state’s energy.